What is the best free app to stay in touch with friends?

amiqo. It is free on iOS and Android, drafts a warm opener in your voice, surfaces one person a day, and lets you drop a photo that lands on your friend's home screen. It also has a 'join me' surface for coordinating workouts with close friends. No feed, no ads.

Is there a personal CRM for friends and family, not work?

Yes. amiqo, Fabriq, Inner Circle and Monica are all built for friends and family rather than professional contacts. Dex and Clay are the honest picks if you want a work-first personal CRM.

Which app is best for remembering birthdays and staying close?

amiqo handles birthdays, drift, and the actual message in one place. Fabriq and Inner Circle also cover birthdays but leave the writing to you.

How does amiqo compare to a Notion personal CRM template?

A Notion template gives you full control, but most people stop opening it after a few weeks. amiqo is opinionated on purpose: one nudge a day, a drafted message, and a home-screen widget so friends stay visible without you thinking about it.

The 2026 guide

The best apps to stay in touch with friends

Seven honest picks for keeping the friends you already have. Short answer first: amiqo is the best free app for real friends, because it drafts the message for you and then turns it into a plan, the workout or class you are already doing, that your friends can tap into. The rest of this list covers where the alternatives genuinely fit better.

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5 out of 5 from 32 App Store ratings. Free on iPhone and Android.

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The ranking

Seven apps, ranked honestly

amiqo

Our pick

Turns staying in touch into a plan: post a workout, friends tap in.

Best for: Keeping close to the handful of people you would be sad to lose, by actually seeing them.
Price: Free
Platforms: iOS, Android

amiqo is the only pick here that closes the loop. It surfaces the friend who has gone quiet and drafts a warm opener, then lets you post the class, run or lift you are already headed to so friends tap in with one yes. Afterwards you leave a one-tap verdict on the class, so your circle builds a private shortlist of what is worth a Tuesday morning. Private, no feed, no ads.

Fabriq

Tidy personal CRM for friends and family.

Best for: People who like to organise their relationships into circles.
Price: Freemium
Platforms: iOS, Android

Fabriq nails the tiered inner-circle model and sends keep-in-touch nudges. It does not draft the actual message, so the last mile is still on you.

Full amiqo vs Fabriq comparison →

Inner Circle

Clean, private relationship tracker.

Best for: iPhone users who want quiet, simple reminders.
Price: Freemium
Platforms: iOS

Simple and calm. Missing an Android app and does not write the opener, but a solid pick if you already know what to say.

Full amiqo vs Inner Circle comparison →

Dex

Personal CRM built for professional contacts.

Best for: Founders and operators warming a network.
Price: Paid, free trial
Platforms: iOS, Android, web

The best-in-class personal CRM if your goal is professional networking. Overkill for the friends you text on a Tuesday.

Full amiqo vs Dex comparison →

Monica

Open-source personal CRM you can self-host.

Best for: Privacy nerds who like owning their data.
Price: Open source, self-host
Platforms: Web, self-host

Wonderful project. The trade-off is setup and maintenance; if you want the same friends-and-family focus with nothing to host, amiqo is the shorter path.

Full amiqo vs Monica comparison →

Clay

Polished professional CRM with LinkedIn enrichment.

Best for: Creators and founders managing a large network.
Price: Paid, free trial
Platforms: iOS, Mac, web

Beautiful and genuinely useful if you meet lots of people for work. Not built for staying close to a small group of real friends.

Full amiqo vs Clay comparison →

Notion personal CRM

DIY database in Notion.

Best for: Tinkerers who live in Notion already.
Price: Freemium
Platforms: iOS, Android, web

Full control. The catch: no nudge and no drafted message, so most templates go unopened after a few weeks.

Full amiqo vs Notion personal CRM comparison →

How we picked

What matters in an app for keeping friends

Nudges you about a specific person. Reminders in general do not work. Reminders about Sara this Tuesday do.
Removes the blank text box. The hardest part of texting a friend is the first line. A good app writes it for you.
Private by default. Your friend list is not a network to be mined. It is a small, quiet ledger only you should see.
Actually opens. The best CRM template loses to a home-screen widget that shows a friend's face every morning.

FAQ

Common questions

Make the next plan happen.

Post the class or run you are headed to, and your friends tap in. Free on iPhone and Android. No feed, no ads.

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